Stents made from interconnecting, often braiding, elongate wires may be made less traumatic, i.e., atraumatic, by closing the loose wire ends at the ends of the stents. The loose wire ends have typically been closed by mechanical means, for example by welding. Such mechanical means, however, often have sharp ends which may score the inside of a delivery system from which it is deployed or may also irritate bodily vessels or lumens in which the stent is placed. Further, the welds of prior art stent devices may fatigue over time leading to undesirable failure.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a stent made from elongate wires in a closed-end design while avoiding the disadvantages of the prior art. More particularly, there is a need in the art for improved stent welds and less traumatic welded stent wire ends.